Communal
Living

New
Buffalo
Commune,
Arroyo
Hondo,
New
Mexico,
1967

Some
children
of
the
sixties
counterculture
dropped
out
and
left
the
cities
for
the
countryside
to
experiment
with
utopian
lifestyles.
Away
from
urban
problems
and
suburban
sameness,
they
built
new
lives
structured
around
shared
political
goals,
organic
farming,
community
service,
and
the
longing
to
live
simply
with
one's
peers.

The
Laws
lived
in
several
groups
of
poets,
musicians,
artists,
and
idealists.
These
communities
experimented
with
redefining
family
structure,
the
relationship
between
work
and
leisure,
and
the
role
of
their
community
in
the
world.
Their
degrees
of
success
varied,
however.
Many
men
and
women
struggled
to
balance
personal
and
political
freedom
with
individual
responsibilities
and
commitments,
and
to
develop
the
farming
and
building
skills
needed
to
sustain
the
community.

Building
the
communal
house
at
the
New
Buffalo
Commune,
Arroyo
Hondo,
New
Mexico,
1968.
The
Laws
traveled
to
New
Mexico
to
have
their
first
child
at
a
facility
that
practiced
natural
childbirth.
They
helped
build
the
New
Buffalo
commune
and
decided
to
move
to
New
Mexico
to
live
among
a
group
of
friends.

Rick
Klein
and
Steve,
Jenna,
and
Carol
Hinton,
New
Buffalo
Commune,
1967.
Rick
Klein
and
other
benefactors
sometimes
bought
the
land
and
founded
communes,
enabling
members
to
implement
their
ideals.

Ben
Marcus
and
Little
Joe
Gomez
of
the
Peyote
Church,
Taos
Pueblo,
New
Mexico,
1967.
New
Buffalo
Commune
members
interpreted
the
ways
of
nearby
American
Indians
to
model
a
new
life
of
self-sufficiency
and
tribal
community.

Lisa
Law
writing
birth
announcements
and
breast-feeding
newborn
daughter
Dhana
Pilar,
Embudo,
New
Mexico,
1967.
Lisa
Law
and
Steve
Hinton
made
the
cradleboard.
Photograph
by
Tom
Law

Ken
Kesey, aboard his bus "Further," Aspen Meadows, New Mexico,
1969. Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey and
his troupe, the Merry Pranksters, celebrated both spontaneous street
theater to engage a mainstream audience and the use of psychedelic
drugs.

Indian
Sikh
Yogi
Bhajan
teaching
Kundalini
yoga
class,
summer
solstice,
Tesuque
Reservation,
New
Mexico,
1969.
As
part
of
a
spiritual
reawakening,
some
members
of
the
counterculture
rejected
drug
use
in
favor
of
mind
and
spiritual
expansion
through
yoga,
meditation,
and
chanting.

We stopped
smoking marijuana and started getting high on breathing. Enough
of being potheads. Now we could be healthy, happy and holy.

Barry,
Patty,
and
Ever
McGuire
with
Don
and
Cindy
Gallard
watching
the
sunset,
New
Mexico,
1967.
Barry
McGuire,
formerly
of
the
New
Christy
Minstrels,
recorded
the
hit
protest
song
"Eve
of
Destruction."

Pilar
Law
and
yoga
altar
at
New
Buffalo
Commune,
1969

Fifteen
of us lived together, one room per family, and a kitchen and
a communal room. I can't say that I enjoyed that kind of living.
It always seemed that women ended up doing a lot more chores
than the men. The men played music, smoked the herb, chopped
wood and repaired vehicles. The lack of privacy was a test.

-Lisa
Law, 1987

Lisa
and
Tom
Law
with
children
Solar
Sat
and
Dhana
Pilar
on
Law
farm,
Truchas,
New
Mexico,
1970.
Seeking
more
independence
and
privacy,
the
Laws
moved
into
their
own
house,
farmed,
and
raised
animals.

Planting
first
garden
on
Law
farm,
Truchas,
New
Mexico,
1970

Tom
Law
teaching
beginning
yoga
to
newcomers,
Law
farm,
Truchas,
New
Mexico,
1971.
Following
the
Life
magazine
article,
a
steady
stream
of
pilgrims
and
the
curious
visited
the
Law
farm.